Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Some thoughts on refugees

Here in Minnesota, something that's worth noting is that apparently at least 20 Somalis living here in Minnesota--refugee, resident alien, or citizen--have either gone to the Middle East to be terrorists (some having killed and been killed themselves), or have been arrested trying to do the same.

Of course, this is a big concern with any refugee program; refugees, after all, arrive on our shores because their government either is trying to kill them, or their government fails to protect them against those who would kill them. Hence, you cannot really do a decent background check on a refugee--that's why historically we've had "refugee camps" where we watched their behavior to determine who will be allowed in, and who will not. No great shakes in terms of lifestyle, but it beats where they came from.

Now in terms of Minnesota, the state is said to have about 25000 residents of Somali descent, so that would seem to be a significant level of terrorism--about a 0.1% "participation rate." That said, we're not done yet.

All of the convicted, and deceased, happen to be young men. So we have 20 of about 12000 men, and 20 out of probably about 2-3000 young men; in other words, at least 1%. Add to that people who have "participated" but not been detected, and we're getting to what I'd call a fairly unacceptable rate of this group participating in terrorism--and what happens if and when they figure out that some U.S. targets are "soft"?

I don't want to send all these people back to where they came from, but we seriously need to do a better job monitoring refugees and teaching them about our society.

3 comments:

You have to cease letting them in, Bike. And send a sizeable number back. There is never any level of monitoring that is acceptable enough to guarantee safety.

I know you didn't ask for guarantees, but you and I both know that as soon as something awful happens, we are immediately treated to talking heads asking the stupid question, "What steps can we have taken to avoid this and what can we do to "insure" that it never happens again?"

Questions to which no one will acknowledge the only logical elephant in the room.

It certainly does seem that many political elites tell us that we "need" these people, and then when some of the new Americans act badly, it becomes the imperative for the rest of us to give up some of our rights, doesn't it? We can't possibly entertain the idea that when people commit felonies, we just might do well to send 'em back, can we?

On a related note, it's striking and appalling to see the Congressional Black Caucus coming out against a key civil right lately--I bet you've been cringing in a way I can only imagine.

Why can we not treat them as if they were the Vietnamese refugees? Open a few empty military bases and stash them there, pipe in food etc and give them education/cultural info and wait to see what shakes out? We HAVE the room.